Truth or dare
Subtitle: management theory at a crossroads
By: a dissertation presented by Ray Fung to the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Business Administration in the subject of technology and operations management
Contributors: Harvard Business School
Publisher: ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Ann Arbor, MI
Language: eng
Number of pages: 201
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Management science
Description: This dissertation examines the state of management theory, whether as espoused by the (largely self-proclaimed) gurus, or by management academics. Given that philosophers of science have determined that theory is supposed to provide reliable, non-obvious predictions I test whether management theory meets those requirements. I examine certain famous guru works for reliability through a case-study method. I examine the published results of management academia through a statistical analysis. I examine the non-obviousness of published management academia's hypotheses through a series of interviews and by posing a survey of those hypotheses to volunteers untrained in management knowledge to determine whether they find those predictions to be obvious. Management theory is currently found to be wanting. However, I then propose a set of prescriptions that might allow management to become a truly progressive discipline as well as what management academics and gurus could fruitfully deliver to audiences today
Notes: UMI Number: 3624359.

D.B.A. Harvard Business School 2014 Ray Fung's thesis.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-201).

Photocopy. Ann Arbor, MI : UMI Dissertation Services, 2014.